Winter 2015

The Children’s Hospital School at Great Ormond St & UCH. Issue 32 Winter ’15

Gosling News

Twitter: @Gosh_School / Facebook: The Children's Hospital School GOS & UCH

www.gosh.camden.sch.uk

The Gallery Anmol has been excitedly preparing for the new Star Wars film. We have been discussing heroes and villains within stories.

Anmol designed these models using plasticine and will be recording his own Star Wars scene using Stop Frame Animation.

Jovani has written two books while he has been staying on Fox Ward. One is a story called the Red Knight and one is an information book called Top Five Computer Games which you can find in The Den. Well done Jovani!

Philbert wrote a poem about the Queen for our poetry competition. His entry was runner up in the school’s poetry competition and was chosen to be part of a book, published by the hospital charity, to celebrate 50 years of the Queen’s patronage.

Brilliant work Philbert.

In the Secondary Schoolroom, students have also been working on poetry.

They have read and performed a wide variety of poems from haiku to ‘found’ poems, from narratives to limericks. As well as studying poetry, they have also written their own poems using a range of different forms which they then made into their own anthology.

To tie in with STEAM week, they looked at dramatic monologues and used the head outline to imagine the brain as a machine.

Depending on the key stage of the students, some then developed these into their own monologues while others wrote a descriptive explanation about their work.

Friday morning at 11am in the Primary Schoolroom is family time!

You can come along and bring a favourite grown up and try some fun activities!

This term our activities have included creating spaceships for eggs, decorating biscuits and making some Halloween pumpkins.

Delal and her mum came along and made mini animal habitats and Gabriella and her mum made some beautiful photo frames.

This half term our topic of learning in the Activity Centre has been Light and Dark. One of the main aspects of this topic was exploring how we use light in celebrations. Here in the Activity Centre we celebrate all of the children who walk through our doors and we explored many festivals from different cultures.

The topic coincided with Diwali and we learnt about this Hindu celebration and also made our own Diya lamps. We explored Guy Fawkes day on the 5th of November, celebrating the safety of the King. We researched fireworks before designing and making our own‌using junk modeling!

We also looked at how our Jewish community uses light in celebration and we learnt about a Menorah, also known as the Chanukiah, which holds 9 candles and is used as a centrepiece for the celebration of Hanukkah.

Lastly we looked at how our Christian community uses light in their celebration of the lead up to Christmas, known as Advent, using a Christingle. We will be exploring Christmas further in the coming weeks.

The children's work is on show on our lovely display, which can be seen as you enter the Activity Centre.

Please come along and admire the collaborative artwork, exploring light in celebrations across our wonderfully diverse city.

In the schoolroom we have been reading Hetty Feather by Jacqueline Wilson, which is about a foundling girl.

We were able to visit the Foundling Museum nearby to find out more about what life would have been like for Hetty.

Here we are trying on all the costumes!

Headteacher Thank you for your feedback. As we start 2016 it is important to reflect on the previous year. We are always looking for ways to improve our service and appreciate everyone who takes the time to complete our surveys at the end of their hospital admission.

Summary of Parents’ Questionnaires √ Over 80% said that their child enjoyed school in hospital √ 90% strongly agreed that the hospital school provided well for the individual needs of their child √ 82% said that they were informed about the work their child did in the Children’s Hospital school √ 90% agreed or strongly agreed that hospital school helped their child keep up with their normal school work √ 97% agreed or strongly agreed that the hospital school links well with other professionals eg ward, home school.

Summary of Pupils’ Questionnaires √ 90% of pupils agreed or strongly agreed that their school work was discussed with them √ 93% said that teachers helped them if they found work difficult √ 100% said that teachers made them feel welcome Summary of Home School Questionnaires √ 80% agreed or strongly agreed that liaison during admission was good or better √ 55% agreed/partially agreed that liaison between hospital school and home school during reintegration was good. √ Whilst no-one disagreed; 45% answered that this was non-applicable √ Just over 30% strongly agreed/agreed that the hospital school helped the pupil reintegrate successfully, 70% answered that this was non-applicable √ 100% agreed that the hospital school report was useful Recommendations from parents for improvement included: w more teaching time on the ward w more opportunities for parents to meet with individual teachers w nothing-everything was great w more teachers-there are too many patients and not enough staff to go round Other comments included: w He cherished his time in school-it lifted his spirits and he liked the staff very much w I found the teachers to be kind and caring, they tried their best to cater for my child’s likes and needs w teachers were excellent and liaison between home and school was outstanding w teachers did a fantastic job of adapting the curriculum to suit E’s needs, this will be particularly useful as it comes to reintegration.

We can’t wait to continue working with you all in 2016 and making sure all our pupils achieve, enjoy and continue in their education.

Poetry for the Queen Every year we celebrate National Poetry Day in the hospital school but this year was a little different. Instead of choosing the national theme for our poetry work we chose to have a royal theme to tie in our work with the hospital celebrations of 50 years of Queen Elizabeth’s patronage of the GOSH charity.

Students learned about what a patron is and what they do, when the Queen became patron of GOSH and they looked at old photos and videos of past visits and noticed differences between the hospital then and now. They then created their own poems to submit to our written poetry competition under the title ‘Queens, Kings, Castles and Crowns’.

Our winners were: Sasha, Elephant Ward (Primary Winner); Philbert, Fox Ward (Primary Runner-up); Gizem, Eagle Ward (Secondary Winner); Pranav, Eagle Ward (Secondary Runner-up).

As well as writing poetry we also ran a videoonly ‘Response To Poetry’ competition where students were asked to recite or respond to a line, verse or whole poem with music or drama.

We had some very creative responses! Our winners were: Samuel, Elephant Ward (Primary Winner); Julie, Sky Ward (Primary Runner-up); Chad, Sky Ward (Secondary Winner); Tatiyana, T11 (Secondary Runner-up).

The poems were included in a special gift book that the hospital charity created for the Queen to thank her for her 50 years of patronage.

The Chickenshed ‘We are all born free’ the beautifully illustrated Amnesty book, has been the inspiration for Citizenship and Drama lessons this term where students have been learning about human rights. They have looked at the formation of the United Nations, studied the list of 30 human rights and investigated how they can be seen in action all around us.

As part of this topic, the wonderful Chickenshed Theatre Company delivered a whole-school Drama workshop where students explored the idea of human rights being denied and enjoyed through movement, signing and song. The students worked brilliantly together to showcase what they had learned in a short performance at the end of the jam-packed workshop.

We are looking forward to welcoming Chickenshed back in the summer term, when we will be looking at the follow-up book ‘Dreams of Freedom’. Thank you, Chickenshed!

UCH Photography The artist and photographer Nadege Meriau has been working with the students at UCH to help develop their understanding of photographic techniques and to help create an greater awareness of the potential of photography. The young people have been learning about the use of studio lighting, filters, photomontage and the technical side of the Adobe Photoshop Mix iPad app.

Photomontage by Billy, T12N

The Activity Centre The October half term saw the second Family Arts Week take over Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). Part of the national Family Arts Festival event, the week was organised by the Activity Centre & GO Create!

Patients got involved in a whole host of creative activities, from making wire sculptures,leather bracelet making, Fimo modelling and metal bashing, to contributing to The Big Draw.

The Big Draw is part of the international campaign for drawing, which inspires people of all ages to use drawing to make sense of the world around them and to communicate t h e i r i d e a s . T h i s y e a r ’s t h e m e w a s ‘sustainability’ and GOSH’s Big Draw event ran from Tuesday to Thursday in the Activity Centre.

It was a hugely successful week and fun was had by all – it looks like it is now going to be an annual event We have also been very busy teaching Nursery aged children on the wards, and with 3 teachers up there now we are reaching more children than ever!

Each lesson begins with a book or song and we expand on this with an activity. Whether it’s something that will help us learn numbers, or how to build and balance, or making marks and being creative…there is so much learning to do!

Computing Students in the School participated in this year's Hour of Code by learning how to code and debug in Minecraft.

Using a variant of the massively popular coding site Scratch, pupils were able to help Alex or Steve to navigate the Minecraft universe by compiling lines of code as instructions. you can join in the fun here: mojang.com/2015/12/the-making-of-hour-of-code

Lego Racers This term the challenge intensified as pupils continued to use the same set of Lego to build a car powered by a motor.

The competition has been fierce but, so far, the top of the leader board for this term is Abdullah, from Bear ward. Congratulations Abdullah. Who can beat you in 2016?

S.T.E.M As part of STEAM week, the students’ work was inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci. In Engineering, they had great fun designing parachutes which had to prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from a height. They also enjoyed designing a variety of catapults and testing them for accuracy and power.

Using Jackson Pollock’s work as inspiration, they then used their catapults to flick paint randomly and create some abstract pieces of Artwork! Have a look at some of their work.

Following the school’s theme of The Nutcracker, we were really lucky to have David from the Royal Opera House join us for a STEM lesson.

We were looking at the difference in pressure that ballet dancers exert with different foot positions. David brought us some ballet shoes so we could take measurements to help us with our calculations.

Students were split with their predictions some thinking that the additional weight of two dancers in a lift would give a greater pressure than one dancer on point.

But our results were conclusive and our calculations showed that a dancer on one leg, on point, exerted more pressure!

Science Technology Engineering Maths

Robotics As part of STEAM week we had a visit from Zan from Restech who led a robotics workshop. Students got to programme their own robots and battle it out in a game of robot wars! Take a look at the pictures!

Art with Liz Enjoy the collection of astonishing art created over the term by children and students both in the schoolroom and on the wards.

S.E.N.D The Nutcracker has been an exciting project for the whole school this term and has also incorporated work from our pupils’ home schools.

The Nutcracker began as an interactive story intended for pupils with SEND but has been embraced by the whole school and hospital staff.

We have been so impressed by our pupils’ work that we have created a school video to showcase and celebrate their achievements.

You’ll be able to see it on the school social media accounts: @Gosh_School on Twitter, The Children's Hospital School GOS & UCH on Facebook

Twas the night before Christmas When all through the school The teachers have been planning how to make Christmas cool.

The pupils were busy With ballet, rats and mice Sugarplums and flowers Snowflakes and ice.

The wards were all bustling The schoolroom was too And our friends at the vale Showed us what they could do Twas the night before Christmas the filming is done We hope you enjoy it ‘Cos we all had fun!

Special Educational Needs & Disability

The Children’s Hospital School at Great Ormond Street & UCH

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The Children’s Hospital School at Great Ormond Street & UCH Tel: 020 7813 8269 Twitter: @Gosh_School Find us on Facebook: The Children’s Hospital School at GOS & UCH

www.gosh.camden.sch.uk